About Us

VirtuallyBetter Health, LLC was founded by clinicians to disseminate empirically validated tools by bringing clinicians together to craft and practice-based assignments that optimize patient rehearsal.

​Developed by leading EBT researchers, partially funded by NIH, this HIPAA compliant platform brings a community of EBT therapists together to advance patient care.

Established in 2023

VirtuallyBetter Health, LLC was founded in 2023 by Dr. Peter Tuerk, Mr. Thomas Cohen, Dr. John Piacentini, and Dr. Joseph McGuire.​

Our Goal

VirtuallyBetter Health, LLC was founded with the mission of creating empirically validated tools to support clinicians in the practice of empirically validated approaches. ​

Our Team

Peter Tuerk, PhD
Co-Owner and CEO

Dr. Tuerk is a clinical psychologist and professor at the University of Virginia, where he serves as Director of the Sheila Johnson Center for Clinical Services. He specializes in EBTs for anxiety-spectrum disorders, related research and training, and the integration of technology into clinical care. He has served as Principal Investigator on NIH, VA, and DoD research awards, integrating AI, VR, mobile health, applied psychophysiology, and crowdsourcing into clinical care settings with a focus on usability. Dr. Tuerk has a passion for the fidelity and dissemination of EBTs and serves as a lead in both national and international clinical training initiatives. He prioritizes maintaining an active client load to continually inform his research and training efforts. He is an alum of The University of Virginia.

Thomas Cowan, BA
Co-Owner and President

Mr. Cowan is founder and CEO of Synergy Software Design in Columbia, MD. He is a graduate of James Madison University in Harrisonburg, VA, and a Certified Scrum Master in IT (2014). He has extensive experience in scaling healthcare software systems and programming. He brings over 20 years of business and management experience to his role as CTO at VBH.

John Piacentini, PhD
​​Co-Owner and Science Officer

Dr. Piacentini is a professor of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences at the University of California, Los Angeles, and Director of the Child OCD, Anxiety and Tic Disorders Program. He is an alumna of the University of Georgia, Athens, and completed his postdoctoral fellowship at Columbia University/NY State Psychiatric Institute in NYC in 1988. He brings extensive grant-funded research experience to his role as Science Officer at VBH.

Joseph McGuire, PhD
​​Co-Owner and Science Officer

Dr. McGuire is an associate professor at Johns Hopkins University Medical School. He is an alumna of the University of South Florida, Tampa (2015) and completed his postdoctoral training at the University of California, Los Angeles. He has worked extensively in clinical and research endeavors with Drs. Tuerk and Piacentini, and brings strong research and clinical expertise to his role as Science Officer at VBH.

Margo Adams Larsen, PhD
Director of Research and COO

Dr. Adams Larsen is a licensed psychologist in North Dakota and Utah. She has served in several clinical training and research roles and brings a strong history of team leadership and operations management to her roles at VBH. A graduate of Western Michigan University (MA and PhD) she completed her internship training in 1999 at Children's Hospital in Columbus, Ohio, part of The Ohio State School of Medicine (now Nationwide Children's Hospital). She has a strong commitment to empirically validated interventions and a broad expertise in telepractice. She has served as PI on numerous NIH grants assessing the efficacy of technology to assist clinical care. She served on the initial APA/ASPPB/Trust Joint Task Force to develop Guidelines for telepsychology practice (2011), and also served many years as president of the North Dakota State Board of Psychologist Examiners. 

Andrew Loiacono, BS
Software Developer

Mr. Loiacono is a graduate of Towson University in 2014 with a Bachelor of Science degree. He has worked in software development since 2015, with experience spanning full-stack web development, backend and frontend systems, and cloud-based infrastructure. At VBH his talents support the design, implementation, and ongoing maintenance of the secure, scalable OC-GO platform. He is responsible for development, deployment, and operational support to ensure reliability and performance across production environments. He has extensive experience developing healthcare software that focuses on patient screening and information collection to support program eligibility and access. He emphasizes maintainable systems that balance technical rigor and real-world usability.

Cathy Beam
Financial Administrator

​Ms. Beam is the Finance Administrator for VirtuallyBetter Health, LLC. She joined the VBH team in September 2025 and is responsible for providing accounting support with duties including monthly processing of payments,  accounts payable and receivable, and month-end closing. She keeps all our business matters flowing. Ms. Beam comes to VBH with extensive experience in financial administration at small businesses. She has expertise in grant finance management and has served in this role for both corporate and university settings. She has been in the accounting field for over 40 years.

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Our COLLABORATORS

VBH partners with expert researchers and industry experts to evaluate implementation and rigorously test our products. We are delighted to collaborate with: 

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OC-GO is used in studies published in top journals

Published studies for OC-GO:
Peter W. Tuerk, Joseph F. McGuire, and John Piacentini. (2024). A Randomized Controlled Trial of OC-Go for Childhood Obsessive–Compulsive Disorder: Augmenting Homework Compliance in Exposure With Response Prevention Treatment. Behavior Therapy, Volume 55, Issue 2, Pages 306-319.